AN 8-month-old baby boy, who almost died of pneumonia, was saved by doctors at Bao’an Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital with the help of a method made possible by a new piece of medical equipment called an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machine, the Shenzhen Evening News reported Saturday.

The baby, identified as Doudou, was diagnosed with bronchial pneumonia at the hospital after contracting a fever July 2. As his condition worsened, he was transferred to the PICU where he was diagnosed with adenovirus pneumonia, which carries a high-mortality rate among children. On July 10, Doudou’s lungs almost stopped functioning and his heart rate and blood pressure were both in decline.

The hospital has partnered with Bayi Children’s Hospital in Beijing under the city’s “3R Project,” which aims to introduce top-notch medical experts and resources to Shenzhen. Several medical experts from the Beijing hospital traveled to Shenzhen to save Doudou’s life. Both sides prescribed ECMO therapy for Doudou’s emergency treatment.

ECMO is an extracorporeal technique for providing cardiac and respiratory support to a patient whose heart or lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of gas exchange to sustain life.

Doudou’s life was sustained by an ECMO machine, working as an “artificial lung” for 14 days, which offered the doctors enough time to cure his lung infection. Four days after the cessation of ECMO, Doudou could breathe on his own as his lung function had recovered significantly.

According to the report, Doudou is the first child saved by ECMO treatment in Shenzhen. “This is the most severe pneumonia case in a child that I’ve ever seen,” said Hong Xiaoyang with the Beijing hospital. (Zhang Yang)